Water utilities install water meters at customer sites to meter the consumption of water by a water customer. When a site includes a building containing multiple customer residences (e.g. condominiums, apartment buildings, etc.) such water meters are often installed in locations not easily viewable by a customer. As a result, such water customers are not able to view the consumption data generated by their water meter. Consequently, water utilities have a need for a module that displays water consumption data to a user where such module is installed in a convenient location for customer viewing.
Prior art water meters typically are configured with pulse outputs that provide access to pulse signals relatable to the amount of water flowing through the meter. What is needed is a Remote Counter Display Module (RDM) comprising at least one input port that is electrically associated with the pulse output of a water meter wherein such RDM provides a plurality of functions such as a counter preset, counter reset, continuous counter value, a customer re-setable counter value, a sleep mode and a dual input that can be connected to two separate registers and combine the register data to provide a display value that is the “total” resource consumption value.
Many resource providers will eventually wish to upgrade their system to include automatic meter reading (AMR) capabilities. Consequently, there is a need for a RDM that can be easily upgraded to be compatible with AMR systems.